Monday, November 23, 2015

IT News Head Lines (HardOCP) 24/11/2015

SQL Injection: The Hack That Will Never Go Away
SQLi
has been around for nearly two decades, yet it repeatedly rears itself
at the top of vulnerability lists. Are web developers solely to blame?

"You
could teach a 4-year-old to do it," Al-Bassam added, summing up how
incredibly easy the whole process is. Indeed, Hunt has uploaded a video
of him teaching his 3-year-old son how to carry out an SQLi attack with
Havij.

Microsoft Wants To Know Which Casual Games It Should Make Next
Microsoft needs votes to figure out if they should make a staple like Chess? Really?

Although
it is a decent move to let players choose which game they want to play
next, it is a bit disappointing to see that a couple of other arguably
more popular games such as 3D Pinball for Windows - Space Cadet and
SkiFree - which were published by Microsoft and were packaged with older
versions of Windows including Windows NT 4.0 and XP - are not part of
the voting process. Voting period for the above five games closes on 17
December 2015.

Interactive Fitting Room Smart Mirror
Word
on the street is that the Ralph Lauren flagship store in NYC has these
fancy mirrors set up already. I think I would still rather buy online
and try clothes in the comfort of my own home, though.

Once
a consumer steps into the fitting room, an RFID antenna located in the
mirror picked up on what clothes you brought in and displays them on the
mirror. Users can then use the touchscreen to select their size, color
and see recommendations  it's basically like you have personal stylists
there with you to help you find the best options.

Many Of Your Android Apps Send Unnecessary Hidden Data
This
study targeted Android, but I have a hunch it's applicable to most apps
out there. I would be curious to see how these transmissions affect
battery life.

The researchers analyzed the number of
communication channels opened by the 500 most popular mobile apps and
found that roughly 50 percent of them appear to have no bearing on the
user experience. That doesn't necessarily translate directly to the
quantity of data exchanged over those channels, but for short sessions
of application use, the portion of transmitted data irrelevant to user
experience is also as much as 50 percent.

First Official Wonder Woman Photo
I
know I shouldn't pass judgment so soon, but I think this is a case of
miscasting and would have rather seen someone like Megan Gale in the
role.

Chris Pine joins Gadot in
the cast as Captain Steve Trevor, along with Robin Wright, Danny Huston,
David Thewlis, Ewen Bremner, Said Taghmaoui, Elena Anaya and Lucy
Davis. Gadot will first step into Wonder Woman's patriotic uniform in
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" this spring; the standalone film
drops June 23, 2017.

The Clash Between Story And Violence In Games
Does
it bother you when a game's narrative paints the protagonist as a
morally conscious or vulnerable character, but they dish out excessive,
contradictive violence during gameplay? I think that games like Tomb
Raider do overdo it at times, especially with those brutal stealth
kills.

Her first kill is in self-defense. The gun goes
off in the middle of a hand-to-hand struggle. It takes her aggressor's
life. The death weighs heavily on the 21-year-old, who recoils,
shudderingly, from the mess. The writing team, however, is unable to
reconcile their character's fragility with the pressing requirements of
the design team, who clearly need a parade of bullet-sponge enemy
soldiers to stand in the archeologist's path as obstacles. Five minutes
after her first kill, Croft is firing off rounds, seemingly without a
moment's thought.

Dr.
Smith contacted the seller and urged him to halt the online auction 
apparently the first on eBay for a Greek New Testament papyrus, he and
other scholars said  and let him study the fragment. The seller agreed,
and now, on Saturday, Mr. Smith will present his research at the annual
conference of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta.

Best Buy Shows Electronics Aren't Going To Save Christmas Either
So
what's the real story? That people finally realize most of the stuff on
sale is junk these days, or that everyone is buying off Amazon?

Best
Buy Co., the world's largest electronics chain, said on Thursday that
the U.S. market for tech products worsened in the third quarter and that
more declines are on the way for the holidays. The major drag was
tablets, a category that's peaked and is now losing out to larger
phones. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. also said this week that
electronics were a point of weakness.

Digital Currency Pays People To Walk
Well,
that's one way to get people off their butt. This new currency,
appropriately dubbed "bitwalking dollars," is generated by users' steps.

The
idea of Bitwalking is to take advantage of the trend for fitness
trackers by offering an additional incentive to keep fit. The global
scheme plans to partner with sportswear brands, health services, health
insurance firms, environmental groups, and potentially advertisers who
could be offered unique insights into the audiences they are targeting.

Samsung Announces New Flip Phone
I
hear flip phones are still popular in Asia, which is why Samsung is
still releasing these. Would you ever consider owning a flip phone
again?

The W2016 has two 3.9-inch Super AMOLED displays
with 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, under the hood there is a 64-bit
octa-core Exynos 7420 processor with 3GB RAm and 64GB of internal
storage. The headset also has a 16-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front
camera, it runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Its 2000mAh battery is packed in
a chassis that measures 120.4 x 61 x 15.1 mm and weighs 204 grams.

Intel Does Not Need PCs For Growth
The PC market may be shrinking, but Intel isn't sweating.

Chief
Executive Officer Brian Krzanich told analysts that Intel's growth was
not dependent on its PC business. Intel is facing a weaker PC market and
said that its revenue has been bolstered by demand for high-powered
processors that run servers, the building blocks of cloud-computing
centers. Additionally, orders for memory chips and processors used in
new markets for Intel -- such as automotive and factory automation --
are helping to boost sales, the CEO said.

Sony CEO Denies Sale Of Mobile Business, In-House Mobile Chipset
Kaz wants you to know that those rumors of Sony abandoning their mobile division or making a mobile chipset are totally false.

during
a recent interview with media outlets in China, Sony's CEO, Kazuro
Hirai himself, reemphasized that there are no plans in place to sell
Sony's Mobile Division. Furthermore, when asked about the company's
alleged entrance in the mobile processor market in 2016, Mr. Hirai
simply denied the rumors, adding that Sony has no plans in regards to
building its own chipsets.

Apple Pencil Teardown
So
here's a look inside the Apple Pencil, literally. I think it looks
better without the plastic casing, but I'm weird like that.

Since
the dawn of the iPad, Apple has remained resolute that the iPad is
meant to be enjoyed sans-stylus. So when the iPad Pro debuted with a $99
must-have accessory in the form of a stylus, we were obviously
intrigued. What makes the Apple Pencil so special? From what we've
heard, it's got some nifty features, but we're more interested in what's
going on inside that shiny white cylinder.